Stepan Makarov

Stepan Osipovich Makarov (8 January 1849-13 April 1904) was an Imperial Russian Navy Vice-Admiral during the Russo-Japanese War.

Biography
Stepan Osipovich Makarov was born in Nikolaev, Kherson Governorate, Russian Empire (present-day Mykolaiv, Ukraine) on 8 January 1849. He joined the Imperial Russian Navy in 1863, and he served as a captain during the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and later in the conquest of Central Asia. He was promoted to Rear Admiral in 1890 and to Vice-Admiral in 1896, and he commanded several Arctic exploratory expeditions in the 1890s and 1900s. In 1904, following the Battle of Port Arthur, he replaced Oskar Starck as commander of the Russian Pacific Fleet, and he attempted to lead a sortie out of Port Arthur as Japanese troops moved in on the city from Manchuria. His fleet dodged Japanese mines before attacking a smaller Japanese force, only to be ambushed by Japanese ships emerging from the mist. During the Russian retreat, Makarov's flagship Petropavlovsk struck a mine and sank, and Makarov went down with the ship.